Five years have passed since Alexand Merek was sentenced to serve ten years in a military correction facility, for accidentally killing her friend, Baio-Yujia Sun. (See issue 25 and issue 26) When Alexand was seventeen she was selected to work for Dr. Katherine De Somme, a micro biologist and has worked in her laboratory for the past three years. However, Alexand was up late, playing piano in the entertainment bar, celebrating the release of her sister, Heyem and friend Jarad, and has turned up uncharacteristically late to work. Despite this, a friendship and trust has formed between them, allowing Katherine to share a terrible secret with her young cadet, when she eventually arrives. CLICK HERE for next chronological story.

304 Responses

Annnd – my third one of your stories (or incidents…obviously they’re all connected), and I’m hooked. This one (as I’m sure you know) isn’t as self-contained, but no worse for that – I’m left wondering how Katherine got here from having her legs bitten off by a shark; I’m left wondering how Alex’s crush will play out; and I’m really left wondering what’s going on with these patients.

I’m also reading your blog posts, and wish I could join the write a blog a day 2012, like you! (Really can’t lol) How are you getting on with Nano?

Yes, (gets excited as you subscribe, big thank you!) There’s a good way of handling these stories chronologically, (as I know it can be quite disorientating reading them in snippets. (I’m mean, I like to tease readers!) There’s a Story Timeline section at the top of the blog, which helps with continuity. Katherine wasn’t the one who had her legs bitten off, (That was Cordelia “Bizzi” Gray) Cordelia crops up in the second manuscript (I’m attempting to seek publication for manuscript 1. (May take some time) But you find out what happens to Cordelia in manusc 2!

Thanks Joy, no problem, you have some great advice on your blog, so I’ve subscribed. (The artwork is mine…I like to draw them…I pretend I’m taking photographs lol) Welcome. The title is a reference to accessibility and immortality / mortality, amongst other things.

It’s more realistic than the comics panel in my blog.
Comics tend to exaggerate human looks.
Especially romance comics,
where every young females are beautiful and have a delicate figure,
while the males are all handsome and have a strong build.

I wonder if you could redone some of your favorites romance comics panel from my blog.
I’d like to see it and post it in my blog!

Thank you, Peter, I particularly like your multimedia presentation of The Holding. (and Kaethe Kollwitz is one of my favourite artists) I’m looking forward to reading/listening to more of your work. Cheryl

Amazing illustrations you have a wonderful blog I am a follower now and look forward to seeing your next post. Thank you so much for following my blog judysp.wordpress.com I really appreciate your support. Happy Blogging cheers Judy🙂

Hi Judy, thank you. You have a really interesting blog. (I didn’t know cats had two different types of purring. My cats certainly know how to get their own way, using multiple meowing techniques!) Good to meet you.

Cheryl, I just noticed that you started following my non-photography blog. If you want to follow the photography, you want http://ronkline.wordpress.com .
You are certainly welcome to follow my other blog but it is mostly politics (I am very left wing) and religion (I am an atheist).

Thanks for reading one of my blogs, I read this one and the writing and artwork were spectacular. I will follow your blog and hope you will read more of mine and follow it as well. Best wishes, beebeesworld

Thank you, I took a long time reading your poetry. They are inspiring and written eloquently, and I’m sure move anyone who reads them. I’m glad I found your blog. I’m following you. Thank you for taking the time to read my stories. I appreciate it.

Wow, Cheryl, you’re utterly brilliant. I just sat in awe in front of my computer staring in amazement at your beautiful words and illustrations. I wish you so much success now and in the future. Thank you for liking my post ‘Inner time is limitless’ and following my blog. I’m following you now and life just got even better🙂 Have a beautiful day. Michele

Hi, Michele, thank you! I’m glad you like the stories, as I’ve been taking a lot of time reading your blog. Other people should go and read it, as it deals with a lot of very complex issues, politically. (Oh and sorry for spelling your name wrong when I commented on a poem on your site. I’ve had a bit too much caffeine! lol.)😀

Dear Cheryl, I very much appreciate you taking the time to read my blog. I’ve had my eyes (and my heart) opened wide since I started working in Sierra Leone two years ago. I hesitate to use the well-worn quote, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger…” but that’s where I am at the moment and writing is the antidote to the moments of crushing despair. Again, I wish you all the best. Michele (don’t worry about the spelling, happens all the time🙂.

Hi Linda. It’s really good to meet another artist / writer. I’m enjoying browsing your site, and love schizoscape-ltownsdin. (The mix between fluid and concrete, and also the rich colours attracted me to the painting immediately)

Hi, Devine! Your reasons for writing are similar to mine, from what I’ve read of your work so far. I’m quoting from you here, “My wish is to help people see other worlds as real as their own world.” And that comes across in your poetry. You have an addictive blog, and I’m glad I found it! Glad you stopped by to visit mine too! Cheryl

thanks for liking my post “Looking For The Magic”. I appreciate your interest in my photos. It is nice to get positive feedback from others in the blogging community. Your stories are interesting and the illustrations really help to give the reader a sense of what you thought that character actually looks like.

Hi Cheryl, thanks for following my blog. I really admire your work here and have loads to explore. I feel like I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole. Your creative spark is so bright and strong. Best wishes. Neil, (Soloneili, thepoetinthecar)

Hi, Neil, you’re very welcome, as I love your art. It has a lot of subtlety and depth. Thank you for taking time to visit my stories, as it means a lot to me. Good to meet you. I hope you enjoy reading them. Cheryl

Yes, I have already enjoyed sampling your writing tonight Cheryl and thanks for your kind words regarding my art, I must get back to doing some more I think. However, enough about mine, I would really like to say to you how much the writing you post is given this amazing depth by your characters, they seem to have a real human spirit enclosed within them. There is a synergy between the visual and the written which you use so well. I like to think I have empathy hear but in my case I use sound. I’m so glad I encountered your creativity. Best wishes. Neil

Hi Cheryl,
Thanks for following my blog …. I’m flattered. I wish I had more time to read all your blogs, but what I have read is very interesting. I am new to this game and am still learning my way round.

WOW!! You have a stiuning blog I came by to thank you for following my blog ad look what I find. I am not even sure how you found my blog now,. You are more than welcome but your blog knocks my socks off. But I don’t wear socks so it just knocks

Do you do all the pencil/charcaol illustrations and portraits too?

I am so inpired by you.

Thanks by the way for following my blog. One day you will have to tell me.. ~ BB

Hi Anna, thank you and good to meet you. I practically live in this world, it’s been with me for over 20 years and I’ve only recently been able to write and illustrate it in this way, so it’s really 2 decades worth of pent up stories.

Thanks for stopping by my very humble blog ( now that I have seen yours!) Fantastic drawings, incredibly evocative. Will return to read further. Dead impressed, beginning to wonder whether to pursue a publisher rather than just put it as you do! Wonderful independence, you obviously know and value your talent, as you should!

What a completely awesome way of getting your words/illustrations out. Love it! I happened on part three but am going to come back when I have more time and start at the beginning. Love the concept, you are a wonderful artist. I have been hooked on illustrations ever since the third grade when they stopped putting them in books relative to my age. The book I will write will definetly have them, you are an inspiration, thank you!-Loretta

Your illustrations are breathtaking. I just found your website, so not sure what point I am in the story, but I am very intrigued. Which means that you are a good writer, because I am hooked and I don’t have any idea what is really going on.

this is interesting….I want to come back 2 it when I have more time…very busy week….thanks for following me….I love your drawings. You are really great with that black and white stuff. I don’t have that gift, but u certainly do.

Wow, you are doing it all. And, you know what I particularly appreciate? A little armpit hair in your banner. No, really! It says something about the character and reality and …. well, I don’t know, I saw it and thought “there’s a woman I would probably like”~!! 🙂

I am so impressed with what you are doing. I really wanted to read on with the excerpt above and enjoyed the language of description and I am wowed by your illustrations. How wonderful to be able to illustrate your own work. I have often thought how I wish at least some adult novels were illustrated. I really like your art work. I am chuffed that someone like you is following me and I am signing up to our email sub and following you. Best wishes and thanks for following me Sarah

Your art is the bomb! I love your site and wil return often. Short story writing is one of my fav literary genre as well. Thanks for liking my post “Whoopi Goldberg’s fav things” and would love to connect for a guest post on the short story at my transitional site here: http://clara54.wordpress.com?

Great blog for short stories and I love your illustrations, too. Really like the way you have set it all up. The short story is a fantastic form of storytelling.
Thank you also for visiting Trust Me, I’m a Storyteller, much appreciated.

My dear Cheryl Moore,
I appreciate your sketches. One of the best, seen on the blogs.
I fancy myself as an artist. Five years in Sir J J School of Art, Bombay, India and several years in Advertising, Marketing, I feel bit jaded, Oops, faded.
No money in illustration world. More supply than demand.
Keep the good work and forget about making money.
…and I am Sid Harth@elcidharth.com

Hi Sid, good to meet you, no there’s no money in this kind of escapism as yet, but hope is a very powerful delusion. I’ll take fantasy over reality as compensation! I’d love to see your artwork some time. Cheryl

Hi Diane, you’re welcome, I enjoyed reading your post about perspective and agree with you about relativity. I’ll also look forward to reading your posts. It’s good to meet you. All the best for the future. Cheryl

Thanks for visiting my blog and website. You’ve got a lot of complexity here in the drawings and your characters stories. Clearly, you love what you do. All the best in your publication path! Peace in all things~Katy

Yours is a great blog to dip into to read a short piece of extremely well-written prose. I’m just wondering how much of your ms you should post if you are looking for a publisher. I’m sure you know what you’re about though.

Hi Jane, thank you. All these stories are set before the manuscript and although are related to, the ms remains un tainted, hopefully. It’s experimental but will hopefully tie together in the future. Thank you, I appreciate it. Cheryl

Thanks for the good luck wishes. I think promoting it will be much harder than writing it was! The formatting was supposed to be relatively simple. I don’t know whether it is me, or WORD, or my computer, but I found it challenging, to say the least!

Jeez, I am awestruck! I don’t really have time to read this massive work, but am impressed by its existence, and the huge cast of characters–did you draw them all yourself?–and the imagination required to write such a fantasy. Keep it up! One day I’ll try to read more of it.

Unbound Boxes on Flickr

The blurb for Unbound Boxes Limping Gods

(Set in 4041, the first book begins on Christmas Island, Japan.) Alexand Merek is a woman who treasures "Bad Things," and delights in music. She has done something stupid, placing those she loves in danger. Women like her are not welcome in the ordinary world, where women who play piano and dance with wives are placed into, "The Bad Thing Box." Alexand must fight to bring her lost family back together to save them from an unimaginable fate. (If you would like to see this book published, please press the follow button. The writer gives life to a story, but the reader keeps it alive.)

This is for you Dad.

My stories and my world are dedicated to you, Dad. You died before I was old enough to know who you were. I will try to find you in my stories, to go to places far away from this world, to search for you. Maybe one day I'll know you again. Until then I'll keep writing.
I'll never forget you.
Cheryl

Micro Story Archive

Micro Story Archive

I feed on Feedback

You are very welcome to leave comments. I would love to hear what you think of the stories and characters. Your constructive criticism is very much appreciated and very rarely put in my spam box!
Thank you for reading.
Cheryl